It's Miller Time (1880)

It's Miller Time (1880)

Originally named Mary Wishart when she was born in Forfarshire, a venerable Scottish lady later came to Pawnee County, NE, as the widow of George Miller, sr., late Principal of the Montego Bay Company located on the northern coast of the largest island in Britain's West Indies possessions. For many years, Mary and her husband performed missionary work in Jamaica, where their two sons were born on the big isle sometimes referred to as the "Pearl of the Antilles." In early 1880, the 75-year-old Mary lived with her eldest son, George, jr., and his wife on their farm in Pawnee City precinct northwest of town.

Each of the three adult Millers seemed to have also retained Wishart as a middle name. George W. Miller's mother had bestowed her family surname as his second given name right after he was born 36 years earlier in Jamaica. And like George's mother, his 40-year-old wife, Margaret, had been both born a Wishart and had married a Miller in their same native Scotland. "Maggie" may actually have been Mary's Wishart niece before she became her Miller daughter-in-law.

Mr. and Mrs. George Miller, jr., had come to Nebraska almost six years earlier in the summertime of 1874, right after their first child was born back in Scotland. Little Mary Elizabeth was almost seven years of age early in 1880. A second daughter, Margaret, was born in Nebraska during 1877, but the infant named for her mother died the following year. The Millers' newest baby, George McCready, was just one year old on January 11, 1880.

The widow Mary Wishart Miller had yet another son, who was married to JOHN TAYLOR's niece and living nearby in Pawnee precinct. David King Miller had come to Nebraska as a single man in 1876, two years after the immigration of his brother's family. And the 32-year-old banker-farmer had also been born way down in Jamaica, just like his older brother. In January, Mary Miller's other daughter-in-law, 24-year-old Jennie, gave birth to Mabel, making David K. Miller a father for the very first time. The amalgamated name chosen for the infant was extracted from those of her grandmothers, Mary and Isabella.

Jennie Miller's parents, Robert and Isabella Taylor, were both claiming to be 56-year-old immigrants from Orkney, although Isabella was senior to her husband by at least two years. With them lived Malissee, who was born 14 years earlier in Arkansas, and probably worked as a household servant.

contact the site manager